00051. A talk with Fury?
It didn’t take long for Tao to transport all of the vibranium back to the base along with Klaue who had a headset on, as well as a blindfold. He was also cuffed and gagged. Ezekiel stopped by Hank’s lab with about one hundred pounds of vibranium. Hank, Bill and Darren were all in shock, but Hank recovered the fastest and gave Ezekiel a firm handshake and thanked him for the vibranium.
Ezekiel with his group then headed back to his work area to plan out their next course of action and have a slight mission debrief. Everyone removed their masks and clipped them to their vests as they sat down together on some couches.
Ezekiel around at the others and a smile graced his lips for a moment as he looked at his current teammates. Kakashi had a wolf mask, Itachi a crow mask and Shisui was the owner of a cat mask. Ezekiel looked directly at Kakashi as he asked, “So how did I do?”
Kakashi smiled under his half face mask and if it wasn’t for his eye squinting slightly, Ezekiel wouldn’t have noticed. Kakashi’s smile faded as he said, “I would say you have a passing grade for a first year academy student, but failed miserably for a genin.”
Ezekiel was shocked as Itachi said, “Kakashi senpai is correct. You are proficient in genjutsu, body flicker and a few other ninjutsu. You have massive chakra reserves for your age and decent chakra control. But all of your basic shinobi skills are close to a clanless first year student.”
“What Itachi is trying to say is that they don’t exist.” Shisui smiled from his seat and Ezekiel’s face crumbled in defeat.
Kakashi smiled again as he said, “Look on the bright side, you have close to ten years to improve and you have us plus everyone's memories.”
Shisui nodded as he said, “Plus once we have our own bodies, we will have to train to regain our skills. So you will have a bunch of training partners.”
Itachi frowned as he said, “It will be nice to have a body again. Even though we are clones, I think we are only around genin rank in power currently. Even with our ninja skills being around chunin level. These clone bodies and your true age are holding us back by a lot.”
Ezekiel smirked as he said sarcastically, “Sorry my kid body is holding you guys back.”
Kakashi shook his head as he said, “No, we’re sorry. We just aren’t used to being so weak and it’s a little frustrating.”
Itachi nodded as he said, “Exactly, even when I was dying, I wasn’t this weak in power.”
Ezekiel shrugged as he said, “I understand, but there is not much we can do about it for now.”
Shisui looked at Kakashi as he said, “Enough talking about something currently out of our control. We should plan for Wakanda.”
Kakashi looked to Ezekiel as he said, “You will have to follow Erik out in the open, you don’t have the skills to hide properly at all.”
“That’s fine, I will start making a background for myself.” Ezekiel pulled out his tablet and began to fabricate a background for himself as the others discussed different possibilities for what might happen in Wakanda. Hours passed and when it was finally time, they went to pick up Erik.
Erik had dressed up a little, it wasn’t a full suit or anything. Just a nicer pair of pants and a button up shirt, his fathers ring was hanging from a necklace he wore. Erik was a little surprised when Ezekiel came to get him. Ezekiel had three other people with him and they were all dressed the same.
They wore black long sleeved shirts and pants, the pants were tucked into some black combat boots. Around their chests they each wore what looked like a dark gray tactical vest which had pouches. They also had a belt with some pouches around their waists, along with black gloves that had dark colored metal protecting the back of their hands and lower arms. Ezekiel was the only one who didn’t have a sword strapped to his back. The thing that surprised Erik the most was the masks each one had on. They were white and red in color and each person had a different style.
He wasn’t sure which one was Ezekiel, until he said, “From now on just call me Bear until we are done in Wakanda. This is Wolf, Crow and Cat, they will be with us, but out of sight. Do you have any questions before we leave?”
Erik nodded his head and pulled out a few pieces of paper which he handed to Ezekiel as he said, “I reread my fathers journal while I was waiting to leave. It gave me some ideas on what to say, but what do you think?”
Ezekiel took the papers and read each of them and he had to admit again, the kid was smart. He thought of a bunch of different ways it could go and wrote down what he thought he should do, depending on what situation came up. When Ezekiel was finished with a paper, he passed it to the next person, who read it and then passed it to the next person. Once everyone had finished reading them, they took another hour to fine tune anything they thought might cause an issue with their plans. Once finished they went to grab Tao who was currently doing some extra training with Ava.
Once they collected Tao they went to pick up Klaue from his holding cell and ran into an issue. Fury was there waiting for them, he had found out about Klaue being held at the base an hour ago and came back to see what was going on. When he found Klaue with a blindfold, headset and gag on, bound to a chair in a holding cell. Fury decided to do some paperwork while he waited for Ezekiel to show up.
Ezekiel waved at Fury as he asked, “What are you doing here?”
Fury took in the group of Tao, Erik, Ezekiel and the other three wearing masks and said, “Funny I was about to ask you the same thing. What are you planning to do with a wanted arms dealer and why is Stevens with you?”
“Klaue is wanted in Wakanda, we are taking him there now to turn him in. As for Erik, his father was born in Wakanda, I figured Erik might want to see where his father grew up.”
Fury raised an eyebrow at that as he said, “So why are all of you dressed up like that? You almost look like bodyguards, except for the weird masks and you don’t have any guns.”
“You don’t need guns to be a bodyguard, as for the mask’s they are part of the uniform.”
Fury still looked skeptical as he said, “Fine I don’t really care about that. What I do care about is where you found over a quarter ton of vibranium!” Fury was almost yelling when he finished speaking.
Ezekiel pointed at the cell where Klaue was as he said, "When I went to grab him I found it among his inventory. So I brought it with me."
Fury glared at Ezekiel as he said, "That's funny, because I heard that you told Hank the other day you knew someone who had some vibranium."
"I might have known Klaue was in possession of some stolen vibranium."
Fury let out a sigh as he said, "I am getting real tired of you withholding information Ezekiel."
Ezekiel shrugged as he said, "What good would telling you about it do? We had no need for it and I knew no one would even touch it for the next fifteen years or so."
Fury pointed at Ezekiel as he said in a raised voice, "It's that attitude of yours that I hate, you decided not to tell us about something because you decided it was not important."
Ezekiel stared back at Fury before he said, "Sounds a lot like someone I know. Are you upset because I act like you or because it's not fun when someone else is holding all the cards?"
Fury glared back at Ezekiel for a moment before he said, "What we do is fundamentally different. I keep secrets because it's my job and if they get out it could lead to panic by the general public. You keep secrets because you think we can't handle what you know."
Ezekiel watched Fury for a few moments before he said, “How is that any different? If I told you a fraction of what I have seen, you would panic and start taking drastic and dumb measures to try and stop what is coming.”
Fury raised his voice again as he said, “That’s bullshit, I can handle whatever you tell me without going into a panic.”
“Fine, have it your way.”
Fury started to speak, but froze, his eyes glazed over and his body relaxed. Ezekiel walked past him as he said, “Wolf, put him on a bed in one of the empty cells.”
As Wolf picked up Fury, Tao asked, “Was that really the best idea?”
Ezekiel shrugged as he said, “Not really, but I am getting tired of him fighting me at every turn. I am just showing him different futures where his paranoia causes major issues for earth. Hopefully that will allow him to trust me a little bit more.”
Crow walked past Ezekiel into Klaue’s cell and brought the man out as Tao said, “Showing him the folly of his own ways?”
“Pretty much, hopefully it will make him relax just a little bit and want to work more as a team. I honestly like that he questions me and will find issues with my plans. What I don’t like is him wanting to know everything I know because he thinks he knows better.”
Tao raised an eyebrow at that as she asked, “Are you saying you know better?”
Ezekiel shook his head as he said, “No, but I know what could happen and I am not in a panic about it.”
Erik had been listening to them talk as they were walking and asked, “If you can see the future, what is going to happen when we get to Wakanda?”
As they started to move out of the holding area towards the portal area Ezekiel glanced back at Erik as he said, “I saw the future before, I can’t see it any more. As for what happens in Wakanda I have no idea.”
Erik frowned as he asked, “But didn’t you show me the future the other day?”
Ezekiel nodded as he said, “I showed you the future you were going towards with the actions you had planned to take. Now that has all changed and I have no idea what is in store for you.”
Erik was quiet for the rest of the walk as he thought over Ezekiel's words. Once they got to the portal platform Ezekiel said, “Everyone ready?”
Ezekiel looked back at everyone and they all nodded, even Tao. Ezekiel nodded back as he said, “One portal to the forest, just outside of the main border tribe village, please.”